27-year-old turns personal travel blog into a lucrative business

When 27-year-old Nabila Ismail logs off of her 9-to-5 job as an engagement marketing manager at GoodRx, her thoughts immediately turn to travel — reflecting on past trips, tracking US Department of State travel advisories, and planning future excursions. 

Although many other workers do the same, Ismail’s motivation has an added layer: She’s the creator of Dose of Travel, a platform dedicated to showing how women of color can safely and affordably travel solo. With an audience of more than 24,000 followers on TikTok and 14,000 followers on Instagram, she connects with women around the world to answer questions about where to visit, how to do so on a budget, and why diverse representation in the travel industry is so important. 

Even though Ismail has been creating travel-based content for the past nine years, she said she only started to make a sizable income from it in 2019, when she had gained a few thousand followers on Instagram and TikTok and started attracting brand partners. 

In addition to creating social media content, she’s also branched out into freelance writing, consulting, and speaking engagements. “I didn’t make a lot of money until I took it seriously as a business,” Ismail said. Since COVID-19 began, she’s earned roughly $13,000 and filed for Dose of Travel to be an LLC in November.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE ON BUSINESS INSIDER

TYT Newsroom